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Obama Clarifies Scope of Capital Gains Tax Hike

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August 14, 2008 7:33 PM

ABC News' Teddy Davis, Arnab Datta, and Rigel Anderson Report: Sen. Barack Obama’s, D-Ill., top economic advisors announced on Thursday that he is seeking to raise the capital gains tax rate from 15 percent to 20 percent for those Americans making more than $250,000 per year.

“The top capital-gains rate for families making more than $250,000 would return to 20% -- the lowest rate that existed in the 1990s and the rate President Bush proposed in his 2001 tax cut. A 20% rate is almost a third lower than the rate President Reagan set in 1986,” wrote Obama advisors Jason Furman and Austan Goolsbee in Thursday’s Wall Street Journal.

Thursday’s Wall Street Journal op-ed is the first time that Obama’s campaign has pinpointed the scope of his capital gains tax hike on families making more than $250,000 per year, according to Obama spokesman Bill Burton.  The details on the capital gain tax hike are part of a broader economic platform that prioritizes tax relief for middle-class families over deficit reduction.

When asked about the capital gains rate back in March, Obama told CNBC’s Maria Bartiromo that he “certainly would not go above . . . 28 percent,” adding, “and my guess would be it would be significantly lower than that.”

He went on to say: “I think that we can have a capital gains rate that is higher than 15 percent [the current level]. If it – and if it, you know – when I talk to people like Warren Buffet or others and I ask them, you know, what’s – how much of a difference is it going to be if it’s 20 or 25 percent, they say, look, if it’s within that range, then it’s not going to distort, I think, economic-decision making.”

In the past, Fox News analyst Dick Morris has used Obama’s seeming openness to raising the capital gains rate as high as “28 percent” to argue that the presumptive Democratic nominee favors a “doubling” of the tax on capital gains.

On television, in op-eds, and in his new book, “Fleeced,” Morris has converted the Obama line into the false charge that the presumptive Democratic nominee “pledges to double the capital gains tax.”

“This misguided policy will drive capital off shore and turn a flow into a torrent,” wrote Morris. “The financial problems of American banks will be amplified. McCain should pounce on this issue and correlate the current crisis with Obama’s position on capital gains. It would be a big winner.”
By getting specific about how high he would like to see the capital gains rate go for families making more than $250,000 per year, Obama is helping to inoculate himself against the charge that he is open to going almost as high as 28 percent.

August 14, 2008 in Kucinich, Dennis, Tancredo, Tom | Permalink | User Comments (72)

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Obama is just reading from Teleprompter.
Give him credit for reading

Posted by: tom | Aug 14, 2008 8:02:39 PM

The only thing that's clear is that Obama WILL raise taxes on the small business owners that create a vast amount of jobs in this country! Oh sure...he can claim he's going after those mena, nasty people that make too much. But in reality folks..he's coming after every red cent he can muster in order to finance his socialist agenda! WILL YOU BE THE SUCKER THAT VOTES FOR HIM?

Posted by: clarkohrepub | Aug 14, 2008 8:36:00 PM

Thank God that "obama is just reading from teleprompter", at least we will have a president that can read.

What of mcsame, what does he read from?
He reads from karl rove's and corsi's distortions.

A Vote for mcsame is a vote for mcbush, both are one and the same! Birds of the same faethers!

Posted by: themanwhosawtomorrow | Aug 14, 2008 8:47:36 PM

And lets hear you ask McCain about his tax position; he said to ABC raising taxes was an option "on the the table", his campaign came out saying he "doesn't speak for the campaign", then he promised a conservative group "No Tax increase"
Which one is it McSame?

Posted by: james | Aug 14, 2008 8:49:42 PM

The reality is that Obama needs to tell us how he is going to CUT spending. Is he going to go after earmarks and other special interest legislation? I'll listen when he talks about that. Otherwise, the only way for us to continue on the wasteful path we are on now is to raise EVERYONE'S taxes, not just the bogeymen who make more than $250K. Also, I don't like the class warefare thing he is trying to ignite. Really dumb Obama. I don't make more than $250K, but I don't hate people who do (as long as they do it honestly). Most people I know feel the same way,

Posted by: Reality | Aug 14, 2008 8:50:41 PM

WILL YOU BE THE SUCKER THAT VOTES FOR HIM?

Posted by: clarkohrepub | Aug 14, 2008 8:36:00 PM

----------------------
Never ever going to vote for obuma!
Vote for a hero not a zero!!

Posted by: HP Boston | Aug 14, 2008 8:51:07 PM

Speaking of earmarks, do you know that McCain has ZERO earmarks? You can look it up if you want. And Obama has requested $1B of earmarks for every day that he's been in the Senate (including earmarks for that pastor friend of his and for his wife's employer?)

Posted by: Give me some Earmarks | Aug 14, 2008 8:52:26 PM

Does Obama have a clue what any of that means? of course not. Might as well have Paris Hilton read than in her bikini. At least she's "hot".

Posted by: geevill | Aug 14, 2008 9:05:38 PM

The apple doesn't fall far from the tree. Obama's mother was a whore that slept with anything that moved. Obama is a media whore saying whatever comes to mind that will get him votes. A mind is a terrible thing to waste, but you've got to have one to start with. Obama's lucky he's got enough cells in that head to run his core body functions. This walnut brain should go run Kenya. The idiots there would think he's a genius. Those backwards morons deserve him.

Posted by: Til Tuesday | Aug 14, 2008 9:11:59 PM

obamas mother was a nig er lover! LOL!

Posted by: independent | Aug 14, 2008 9:17:02 PM

This is crap. Why should people who earn more than 250,000.00 a year pay higher capital gains- just because I work very hard I should be penalized. To hell with that. I don't drag my butt out of bed at 5:00 in the morning and go to the gym and work a 10 hour day to give my family a life I didn't have and I should be penalized. I had the same oppurtunities as other people who had the same situtation growing up as I did. I really dislike this man.

Posted by: Brian -South Hampton | Aug 14, 2008 9:17:48 PM

Obama is the son of a whore and a whore chaser.

Posted by: Til Tuesday | Aug 14, 2008 9:21:09 PM

if the O supporters can distort an American hero John McCain's name to "mcsame and exxon john" then those opposed to Obama are well within their right to call the O - Osama Obama

McCain 08
Hillary 12

Posted by: fob | Aug 14, 2008 9:34:07 PM

Man, the economy is going to tank if this socialist neophyte gets elected. I'm glad I got out of the stock market.

Posted by: Bain | Aug 14, 2008 9:37:46 PM

The economy is going to tank if socialist Obama is elected. If he is elected, everyone will sell off their portfolios (at the old rate) before BHO is inaugurated and the stock market will crash. Scary times.

Posted by: Jain | Aug 14, 2008 9:44:28 PM

Several billionaires have pointed out that they pay a lower tax rate than many of their employees and that something should be done about this.

Responsible corporations realize that if we don't do a good job educating the kids we have now - they ain't gonna get good workers 20 years down the road.

Responsible corporations realize they need to pay a reasonable wage to their employees so they can be the market they sell to.

I'm tired of republican suckups that lie to the voters and pander to big business.

McCain's been a flopping all the way, he forgot how to spell ETHICS. He was involved in the Savings & Loan bailout scandal - why would we want this kind of person who admits lack of economic knowledge into the WH with all our financial troubles?

Posted by: citizen voter | Aug 14, 2008 9:44:58 PM

ha, yeah, great advice Morris. No one is more admired in this country thsn rich people who live off their investments. think of how it will affect the yacht industry!

holy heck is the GOP out of touch. they should be thanking the lord-ah that we nominated a friendly centrist--if I'd had my way, the next president would have spent half his time raising taxes and half his time sending Bush regime war criminals to pound-you-in-the-butt prison. they're calling Obama a socialist and his mother a whore? conservatives won't be satisfied until the gov't is a wholy owned subsidiary...

save america, vote for liberals

Posted by: r0xerb0xer | Aug 14, 2008 10:01:39 PM

We hear so many different answers when Obama is asked about taxes, it's hard to know what to believe.

My wife and I are senior citizens who live mainly on our investments, and we have stopped buying EVERYTHING except food and gasoline, and we're driving half as much. We make nowhere near $250,000 a year, but the figure at which people are considered "wealthy" changes every week.

Obama has previously said he would raise capital gains (investment) taxes to 20%, 28%, and back to 36%. We presently pay 15%, probably the only GOOD thing Bush has done.

Until we know what's going to happen to us, including if we may become homeless, we are buying NOTHING we can't do without.

Posted by: Rhys | Aug 14, 2008 10:12:09 PM

citizen voter - "why would we want this kind of person who admits lack of economic knowledge into the WH with all our financial troubles?" because he is still better than a junior senator (Obama) who's economic ideas will destroy this country. Folk's there's a name for Obama economics - DEPRESSION.
He is clueless and we will pay for it...

Posted by: arkie vet | Aug 14, 2008 10:28:01 PM

Obama cannot be trusted. He constantly changes what he says.

Posted by: Jeffrey | Aug 14, 2008 10:33:41 PM

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